holyspirits | Audience

[ it's probably early in the day then, which means that gabriel currently has a cup of coffee in front of them along with a large notebook they appear to be writing something in. whatever music is playing is pretty chill, but they glance up and nod to her. ]

You're here early. Coffee?

I'd love some.

[approaching to go sit down.]

Though I was actually hoping to ask you about something.

Part of the job, you know. [ answering questions. it's sort of a joke because they've come to like her a lot and they're usually content to just talk to her. so they close the notebook and turn to pour her a cup. ]

What's up?

I saw that memory those weeks ago, of you being hired by God. But now that I know there is a new God - were you hired by the current one, or the old one?

The old one. The big axogodtl was in charge when I first got here. Why do you ask?

I wondered more if you could tell me about that. I think the other angels have only met the new god, so I suppose you're the only one who knows both.

Yeah. The girls signed on under the new god who reached out to them when the transition happened. It's another reason I stayed on. What do you want to know about it?

I guess... you said that the old god tapped you for a project. I was under the impression this was the new god's pet project.

And I also wonder if anything odd happened, during that transition.

It's a little of both. The old god hired me after I said I wanted in on this project. But the new god knew about it when they agreed to change hands. I think... it was originally floated as a project by the old god, and because the new god also felt pretty strongly about it they designed it the basics together before the old god retired. Once they did, the new god started putting the work into fleshing things out and hiring the girls and working directly with them to pick out the islands and design the neighborhood.

Can't think of anything weird happening during the transition though.

What was the old god like? Did you get along with them? And do you know why they retired?

[ pausing for a moment... ]

Why the sudden interest in all of this? [ they don't mind answering, but these do feel a little specific. ] The old god was an axolotl, so. Amphibian-ish. Elusive in a lot of ways, sometimes weirdly patient in others, aggravating most of the time. Aloof. You know how gods can be, a little out of touch with reality while still having an idea of the large overall picture of things.

Pretty sure they retired because they felt like they'd been God long enough. Nothing bad happened to push them to that decision, they just did it.

We're just trying to find anything we can learn to help us understand what's happening - it hardly seems like a coincidence that all this happened after the new god took over. Yves mentioned to me that you're the only one here who knew both gods, so I ought to talk to you about it.

I do understand incredibly well how out of touch the gods can be, yes. But I suppose you still believed in their project enough to stay on?

I wouldn't call it a coincidence, no. That timing's way too close to just be an accident. [ which is annoying... ] Yves is nosy and sometimes doesn't know when to shut up, but I get it. From everybody's perspective, I'm the guy with potential answers.

[ which is why they don't mind trying to answer as best as they can. ]

I did though. Even if I didn't agree with the old god on a lot of things, I believed in the project enough to want a job in it. I couldn't be an angel like the girls, so I pitched a different idea. [ a gesture to the bar. ]

He is certainly very nosy, but he's also worried after you, since you've been not feeling well. He mentioned that I ought to be nice to you, too.

[so there.]

Why couldn't you be an angel? You mentioned not being sure this god had as much faith in you?

[ well that's embarrassing. their body language seems to convey that that's embarrassing and they pause before there's a tilt of their head. ]

You could be as mean as you wanted. I can handle myself. [ wry. ] Jesus, what is he doing over there...

[ gripes aside. ]

The new god and I are at odds with each other almost as much as me and the old god. Not that we talk like they do to the girls. I don't think I could have qualified as an angel if I wanted to.

[frowning.]

Why is that? I don't make it a habit to antagonize gods - well, no, I do make that a habit, but not by choice - but they haven't said anything that sounds entirely unreasonable to me. What about you would they take issue with?

[ okay well the first part makes them laugh. ]

No. I guess they're probably a lot more reasonable with you guys because they want to see your success. They're probably sick of me constantly challenging them for not fixing this shit.

Fixing what shit, exactly?

This. [ a gesture of a hand around the bar to indicate they mean "all the murders." a flash of some sort of wristband breaks through their glow before it flares up again. ] I get it, they're new to the job, but... people are dying, Shadowheart. And worse than that, they're being forced to kill each other.

[hehe i knew it]

Well, yes. I agree with you, I'm not a big fan of that. I'd wondered if there was more to it, predating all of this.

[ she says that, and for a moment gabriel seems to think on this. whatever they're thinking though appears to generate a thought bubble of dark, distant water, gently sloshing as little lights glow far away. ]

What're you thinking could predate it?

I'm not sure, but you said you had an issue with the old god, and the new one wouldn't have trusted you to serve as an angel on this project. Both of those things would have predated the murders, wouldn't they?

Oh. Yeah. Sorry, I thought you... are we talking about God not fixing things being because of stuff predating the murders or something about me specifically here?

[ lost the thread of thought. ]

Your distrust of them, I mean. You said the root of that was you have argued about things that needed fixing, but the example you gave was our present circumstances. But I think there must have been something that predated those circumstances to make you feel that way, yes? Other things they wouldn't fix that you thought they ought to?

Oh. I don't know if we need to go over my own personal abandonment issues. [ yeah. ] The old god didn't bother finding me until after I died and didn't care about being found, versus all the times I tried asking for help and never got an answer. But we talked about this project and it made sense to me. So here I am. The new god probably wanted someone more competent, so then came the angels.

week 6, thursday

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